Abhijit Naskar's Blog - Posts Tagged "neurology"
What is Consciousness?
Consciousness is something all of us share, or rather without it, we'd cease to exist. It is what makes us the most advanced species on this planet.
Consciousness is the most simple and common phenomenon on this planet, yet in the hands of hardcore philosophers it has become the most complex one.
So, the question I shall be answering today is - what is consciousness?
In short, consciousness is the basic awareness of being alive in any organism. It is the rudimentary biological phenomenon that enables an organism to respond to its environment. Every single organism on this planet has consciousness. And the higher we climb up the tree of life, the more complex and advanced the consciousness becomes. And the species that possesses the most advanced consciousness on earth is us, the Homo sapiens.
Consciousness has remained an enigmatic mystery for time immemorial, mostly by the exaggeration of the philosophers. However, with the advancement of Neuroscience in the last few decades, we have truly begun our journey to explore the true biological foundation of consciousness. And even though philosophers and mystics throughout the world want you to believe otherwise, the foundation of consciousness lies in the complex interplay of the brain circuits. Or in short, consciousness is born in your brain. You may read my book Homo: A Brief History of Consciousness to catch up with the evolutionary processes that led to the arrival of Human Consciousness.
Human brain is the most complex organized structure in the universe. It is the biological organ with mind boggling capabilities. It is made up of a hundred billion nerve cells or neurons. And the relentless activity of these neurons gives rise to the fascinating phenomenon, which we call human consciousness. All our feelings, emotions, thoughts, ambitions, religious sentiments and even our sense of self are simply born from the activity of these little specks of jelly in our head.
Every living creature on this planet is conscious. It is the most common element of life. Without consciousness life doesn't exist. Because consciousness enables a creature to understand the basic biological needs of survival. It is all in the nervous system. Even the plants have a kind of nervous system. The response of a plant to physical stimuli is a consequence of long range electrical signaling through the entire plant body. This is similar to the basic characteristics of the neurobiology in animals.
We can tell a lot about a creature's level of consciousness by understanding their perception of death. For example, we see a fascinating behavior in crows concerning death. When a crow dies, other crows vigilantly gather around its body. They perceive the death of their fellow crow as murder. And their vigilance over the dead crow serves a significant purpose. By sticking close to the crow that was killed, other crows may improve their chances of learning about the predators that they need to avoid.
Human rituals for dealing with the dead are vivid and varied. While on the other hand, few animals show more than a passing interest in confronting a dead animal of their own species. For example, African elephants hold a funeral while touching and grooming a dead elephant. Similar behavior can be seen in bottlenose dolphins, chimpanzees and certain species of magpies. We are only starting to understand those behaviors and their level of consciousness.
In short, the more complex the neurobiology gets, the more advanced one's consciousness becomes. And in humans this advancement has gone far beyond the primitive concerns of survival. So the bottom line is, your vividly conscious rich mental universe is simply a construct of your neurobiology. It is what makes you you. It is what makes you unique. It is what makes you attain unimaginable feats of excellence.
However, the air of mystery surrounding consciousness has provided the philosophers and mystics means for survival for ages, but as we neuroscientists keep on exploring further the mysterious domain of consciousness the majority of the philosophers feel threatened. Because the very existence of the philosophers and the mystics is predicated on their metaphysical approach towards explaining consciousness. Which means, the longer they keep it a mystery, the more they can manipulate the minds of masses with magical mysticism.
The purpose of a scientist is to understand every single mysterious phenomenon of this universe, while the hardcore philosophers only attempt to sustain the mysteries as long as they can.
Every true scientist is a philosopher, but not every philosopher is a scientist. Philosophy enables us to imagine the infinite, while science helps us get there. As my dear friend and Mathematician Ronald Cicurel says "our brain works on hypothesis". Here a hypothesis is nothing but a plausible future scenario that our brain simulates based on our predominant ideas, fantasies and beliefs. And then we start working on making that hypothesis a reality. You can read more about this in Ronald's book The Relativistic Brain: How it works and why it cannot be simulated by a Turing machine.
The point it, there is a fascinating mechanism behind everything in this universe. And we scientists attempt to understand those mysteries. Here one might say, it is typical materialistic perspective.
While the reality is, there is no such thing as materialism. The very concept itself is an illusion. Our species evolved around 200,000 years ago in Africa. And we have spent most of our lifetime in the fear of the unknown. We have remained ignorant for thousands of years. And now that we have started to become the true master of the planet, and to reveal the secrets of everything that surrounds us, this very venture feels like a dreadful change to the masses. Thus, in order to sustain the mystery of the unknown, the concept of materialism was born in the human mind. Nobody is to blame here. It is plain subconscious behavior.
However, it is the responsibility of us scientists and all those young students of science to share our discoveries with the world in simple tasteful words. It is our responsibility to awaken the people into the new world of science and reasoning. The darkness of ignorance and fear only thrives in the absence of knowledge. Once the flame of knowledge is bright enough, there shall be no more darkness.
Consciousness is the most simple and common phenomenon on this planet, yet in the hands of hardcore philosophers it has become the most complex one.
So, the question I shall be answering today is - what is consciousness?
In short, consciousness is the basic awareness of being alive in any organism. It is the rudimentary biological phenomenon that enables an organism to respond to its environment. Every single organism on this planet has consciousness. And the higher we climb up the tree of life, the more complex and advanced the consciousness becomes. And the species that possesses the most advanced consciousness on earth is us, the Homo sapiens.
Consciousness has remained an enigmatic mystery for time immemorial, mostly by the exaggeration of the philosophers. However, with the advancement of Neuroscience in the last few decades, we have truly begun our journey to explore the true biological foundation of consciousness. And even though philosophers and mystics throughout the world want you to believe otherwise, the foundation of consciousness lies in the complex interplay of the brain circuits. Or in short, consciousness is born in your brain. You may read my book Homo: A Brief History of Consciousness to catch up with the evolutionary processes that led to the arrival of Human Consciousness.
Human brain is the most complex organized structure in the universe. It is the biological organ with mind boggling capabilities. It is made up of a hundred billion nerve cells or neurons. And the relentless activity of these neurons gives rise to the fascinating phenomenon, which we call human consciousness. All our feelings, emotions, thoughts, ambitions, religious sentiments and even our sense of self are simply born from the activity of these little specks of jelly in our head.
Every living creature on this planet is conscious. It is the most common element of life. Without consciousness life doesn't exist. Because consciousness enables a creature to understand the basic biological needs of survival. It is all in the nervous system. Even the plants have a kind of nervous system. The response of a plant to physical stimuli is a consequence of long range electrical signaling through the entire plant body. This is similar to the basic characteristics of the neurobiology in animals.
We can tell a lot about a creature's level of consciousness by understanding their perception of death. For example, we see a fascinating behavior in crows concerning death. When a crow dies, other crows vigilantly gather around its body. They perceive the death of their fellow crow as murder. And their vigilance over the dead crow serves a significant purpose. By sticking close to the crow that was killed, other crows may improve their chances of learning about the predators that they need to avoid.
Human rituals for dealing with the dead are vivid and varied. While on the other hand, few animals show more than a passing interest in confronting a dead animal of their own species. For example, African elephants hold a funeral while touching and grooming a dead elephant. Similar behavior can be seen in bottlenose dolphins, chimpanzees and certain species of magpies. We are only starting to understand those behaviors and their level of consciousness.
In short, the more complex the neurobiology gets, the more advanced one's consciousness becomes. And in humans this advancement has gone far beyond the primitive concerns of survival. So the bottom line is, your vividly conscious rich mental universe is simply a construct of your neurobiology. It is what makes you you. It is what makes you unique. It is what makes you attain unimaginable feats of excellence.
However, the air of mystery surrounding consciousness has provided the philosophers and mystics means for survival for ages, but as we neuroscientists keep on exploring further the mysterious domain of consciousness the majority of the philosophers feel threatened. Because the very existence of the philosophers and the mystics is predicated on their metaphysical approach towards explaining consciousness. Which means, the longer they keep it a mystery, the more they can manipulate the minds of masses with magical mysticism.
The purpose of a scientist is to understand every single mysterious phenomenon of this universe, while the hardcore philosophers only attempt to sustain the mysteries as long as they can.
Every true scientist is a philosopher, but not every philosopher is a scientist. Philosophy enables us to imagine the infinite, while science helps us get there. As my dear friend and Mathematician Ronald Cicurel says "our brain works on hypothesis". Here a hypothesis is nothing but a plausible future scenario that our brain simulates based on our predominant ideas, fantasies and beliefs. And then we start working on making that hypothesis a reality. You can read more about this in Ronald's book The Relativistic Brain: How it works and why it cannot be simulated by a Turing machine.
The point it, there is a fascinating mechanism behind everything in this universe. And we scientists attempt to understand those mysteries. Here one might say, it is typical materialistic perspective.
While the reality is, there is no such thing as materialism. The very concept itself is an illusion. Our species evolved around 200,000 years ago in Africa. And we have spent most of our lifetime in the fear of the unknown. We have remained ignorant for thousands of years. And now that we have started to become the true master of the planet, and to reveal the secrets of everything that surrounds us, this very venture feels like a dreadful change to the masses. Thus, in order to sustain the mystery of the unknown, the concept of materialism was born in the human mind. Nobody is to blame here. It is plain subconscious behavior.
However, it is the responsibility of us scientists and all those young students of science to share our discoveries with the world in simple tasteful words. It is our responsibility to awaken the people into the new world of science and reasoning. The darkness of ignorance and fear only thrives in the absence of knowledge. Once the flame of knowledge is bright enough, there shall be no more darkness.
Key to Love
Love - the most beautiful word on this planet. This one word has revolutionized the whole planet in an evolutionary way. Without this none of us might have been born. It is mother nature's magical wand by the touch of which everything turns surreal and captivating.
It is the most important ingredient of human life. That's why the tiniest glance at your dearly beloved can make you experience heaven right here on earth. Or as I have said in my book Love Sutra The Neuroscientific Manual of Love, "who wants Jesus when you can have the warm embrace of the person who is the living embodiment of all your desires".
But, despite all the delightful descriptions of love, why is it so hard to maintain a healthy relationship?
If the mental state of love is so soothing then why do people often fail to maintain a healthy relationship?
The answer lies deep within the neural network of the human brain.
In short the cause of failure in relationships is the perceptual difference between the male and female mind. It is all in the fascinating neurobiology of the human brain.
The point is, the male and female brain constructs a vivid and gender oriented mental universe. Thus, the male mind perceives every situation of daily life from a typically male perspective and expects the female to do the same, while the female brain observes everything in a feminine manner and expects the male to do the same. And from this very gender based perceptual conflict rise all the predicaments of a relationship.
Therefore, the only way to sustain a healthy relationship is to have a basic insight of your own as well as your partner's mental universe.
And the very first thing to know about the male and female mental universe is that the female brain is a highly intuitive emotion engine, while the male brain is an analytical powerhouse.
Through millions of years of evolution, Mother Nature has molded the female brain to thrive over emotions, and the male brain to thrive over competition. From a cursory reading, a man and a woman may seem to be members of the same species. But they are neurologically distinct and unique creatures, who see the world from completely different perspectives.
They think differently, feel differently, get mad differently and even handle problems differently. The male brain is a problem solving machine that uses analytical brain structures to find solutions for basic problems of life, unlike the female brain that uses emotional neural structures to solve problems.
Men are born with uniquely masculine neurological circuits while women are born with uniquely feminine circuits. This is what we call sexual dimorphism in clinical terms. And this dimorphism in brain structure leads to distinctive cognitive and behavioral features in men and women. You can read about these fascinating sexually dimorphic features in my book Love Sutra: The Neuroscientific Manual of Love. In this book I have opened up the entire mental universe of men and women while giving a basic guideline for a healthy relationship.
Let me tell you a little more about the fascinating difference between the male and female mind. For example, the male brain is evolutionarily programmed to think about mating far more than women. And this programming has led men to have sexual thoughts more often throughout the day than the women. Women only have such thoughts four or less times in a day.
Another fascinating feature of the female brain is its retention of memories connected to emotional events in the long run. Women are much better at remembering emotional events of life in the long run than men. And off course, the female brain is a great emotion sensor. It is capable of picking up emotional cues from the facial expressions and other body movements of people. Men are not so good at this, for which women often blame the men to be less sensitive. And here's a little tip for all the ladies out there. If you want to make your partner sense your emotions, you can do so by bursting into tears. That's the only way, the male brain can feel there's something wrong. It is plain biology.
And as for men, I'd like to tell you, your neurology may not be as emotionally sensitive as the women's. But that does not mean you cannot grow the virtue of patience. All that women seek in men, is patience with a little tinge of perseverance. And thanks to the amazing neurological feature known as neuroplasticity, the human brain, male and female alike, can learn and adopt new features in the neural network.
It is all about making efforts from both sides of a relationship. Relationships don't fail due to lack of love. Rather they fail because the partners lose touch with each other's inner selves. They get lost in the storm of confusions and meaninglessness. One way or another they start fighting with each other's biological instincts, that ultimately leads to misery.
You must remember, biological instincts are the driving force or rather guiding force of a species. Everything our ancestors learnt throughout their existence is encoded inside our instinctual blueprint. It is the key to understanding how every single human being is wired. The marvelous interplay of various brain circuits creates the instinctual reality of daily life in both men and women.
Regardless of your gender, if you are conscious about the fact that there lies a complex yet vividly beautiful brain circuit mechanism behind every single impulse of your daily emotions, then you can choose how to react upon each of those impulses. You can thus program your behavioral response in a certain situation for the best possible outcome.
It is the most important ingredient of human life. That's why the tiniest glance at your dearly beloved can make you experience heaven right here on earth. Or as I have said in my book Love Sutra The Neuroscientific Manual of Love, "who wants Jesus when you can have the warm embrace of the person who is the living embodiment of all your desires".
But, despite all the delightful descriptions of love, why is it so hard to maintain a healthy relationship?
If the mental state of love is so soothing then why do people often fail to maintain a healthy relationship?
The answer lies deep within the neural network of the human brain.
In short the cause of failure in relationships is the perceptual difference between the male and female mind. It is all in the fascinating neurobiology of the human brain.
The point is, the male and female brain constructs a vivid and gender oriented mental universe. Thus, the male mind perceives every situation of daily life from a typically male perspective and expects the female to do the same, while the female brain observes everything in a feminine manner and expects the male to do the same. And from this very gender based perceptual conflict rise all the predicaments of a relationship.
Therefore, the only way to sustain a healthy relationship is to have a basic insight of your own as well as your partner's mental universe.
And the very first thing to know about the male and female mental universe is that the female brain is a highly intuitive emotion engine, while the male brain is an analytical powerhouse.
Through millions of years of evolution, Mother Nature has molded the female brain to thrive over emotions, and the male brain to thrive over competition. From a cursory reading, a man and a woman may seem to be members of the same species. But they are neurologically distinct and unique creatures, who see the world from completely different perspectives.
They think differently, feel differently, get mad differently and even handle problems differently. The male brain is a problem solving machine that uses analytical brain structures to find solutions for basic problems of life, unlike the female brain that uses emotional neural structures to solve problems.
Men are born with uniquely masculine neurological circuits while women are born with uniquely feminine circuits. This is what we call sexual dimorphism in clinical terms. And this dimorphism in brain structure leads to distinctive cognitive and behavioral features in men and women. You can read about these fascinating sexually dimorphic features in my book Love Sutra: The Neuroscientific Manual of Love. In this book I have opened up the entire mental universe of men and women while giving a basic guideline for a healthy relationship.
Let me tell you a little more about the fascinating difference between the male and female mind. For example, the male brain is evolutionarily programmed to think about mating far more than women. And this programming has led men to have sexual thoughts more often throughout the day than the women. Women only have such thoughts four or less times in a day.
Another fascinating feature of the female brain is its retention of memories connected to emotional events in the long run. Women are much better at remembering emotional events of life in the long run than men. And off course, the female brain is a great emotion sensor. It is capable of picking up emotional cues from the facial expressions and other body movements of people. Men are not so good at this, for which women often blame the men to be less sensitive. And here's a little tip for all the ladies out there. If you want to make your partner sense your emotions, you can do so by bursting into tears. That's the only way, the male brain can feel there's something wrong. It is plain biology.
And as for men, I'd like to tell you, your neurology may not be as emotionally sensitive as the women's. But that does not mean you cannot grow the virtue of patience. All that women seek in men, is patience with a little tinge of perseverance. And thanks to the amazing neurological feature known as neuroplasticity, the human brain, male and female alike, can learn and adopt new features in the neural network.
It is all about making efforts from both sides of a relationship. Relationships don't fail due to lack of love. Rather they fail because the partners lose touch with each other's inner selves. They get lost in the storm of confusions and meaninglessness. One way or another they start fighting with each other's biological instincts, that ultimately leads to misery.
You must remember, biological instincts are the driving force or rather guiding force of a species. Everything our ancestors learnt throughout their existence is encoded inside our instinctual blueprint. It is the key to understanding how every single human being is wired. The marvelous interplay of various brain circuits creates the instinctual reality of daily life in both men and women.
Regardless of your gender, if you are conscious about the fact that there lies a complex yet vividly beautiful brain circuit mechanism behind every single impulse of your daily emotions, then you can choose how to react upon each of those impulses. You can thus program your behavioral response in a certain situation for the best possible outcome.
Religions, Prophets and Politics
"The Church has carried out some of the most inhuman and above all un-Christian acts of human history, yet, it is still gloriously hailed by the majority of human population as to be synonymous with Jesus Christ." - Neurons of Jesus
You have heard countless times from me, that Religion is not a book, it is not an institution, and it is not even a person. Religion is realization of the self.
The Bible, the Quran, the Vedas and all the scriptures in the world are mere inventions of man (not woman) in the pursuit of understanding the self, and to some extent, in the pursuit of authoritarianism. Scriptures from the past have nothing to do with the neurologically created and experienced sensation of divinity and religion. However, all the books which humanity so gloriously worships as sacred, attempt to codify the divinity that is born with the human body and dies with it. This divinity or simply religion is born with the self created by the brain and ceases to exist when the self dies upon the death of the brain.
Religions began as realization of the self, but ended up being retaliation against each other. A handful of individuals in human history, empowered by their own neurons of divinity, experienced something quite extraordinary. They experienced something beyond this mortal world. They experienced being one with an Omnipotent Entity or Abstract Source of Energy. Despite the fact that, these experiences were all taking place exclusively within their own brain, they manifested as extraterrestrial encounters. Hence, the pre-conceived notion of Supreme Entity somewhere up in the sky, got more deep-rooted into the psyche of the ignorant masses.
When a person lacks understanding of the physical universe, and its phenomena, the primordial nature of the mind is to fill in the gaps with all kinds of gibberish concepts that originally come from our primitive days in the wild. And one of these concepts is that, there is a superhuman entity somewhere out there, who keeps an eye on us. That is the most natural knack of the primitive part of the mind. Because here, by believing so, we are psychologically entrusting an imaginary father figure (or mother figure in some religious beliefs, such as the Hindus) with our security and peace of mind. It does act as a placebo effect, but unlike the placebo pills used in our clinical trials, this placebo effect of a father figure or a personal God, has immense biological impact upon all aspects of human life, through the neurobiological substrates of the mind.
In simple terms, when a person believes that a God is truly concerned about the well-being of life on earth, and especially of human life, the belief adorns that person with various positive psychological elements such as emotional stability, in times of distress and a highly functional moral compass. Here this belief has nothing to do with reality whatsoever, rather it serves the evolutionary purpose of self-preservation.
However, if history has shown anything, it is that where there is a God, there is an institution trying to lock up that God in its lifeless structure of orthodoxy, in order to have authority over people and sell tickets to the Kingdom of that God. Thus emerged all the pompous lies about the extraterrestrial Kingdom of God or Heaven.
"By infusing Jesus the man with the divine magic – by making him capable of earthly miracles as well as his own resurrection, the early church turned him into a god within the human world. Thus, the church reinforced the monopoly on the so-called route to heaven, i.e. salvation only through Jesus Christ. And during those days, whoever kept the keys to heaven would rule the world. " - Neurons of Jesus
This way, religion became politics. It became everything but realization of the self. It became a matter of doctrines, books, hierarchy and superiority of institutions. Hence, today the majority of the human population, perceives religion to be synonymous with certain books. And that is why there are so many conflicts in the name of religion and God in this so-called modern world.
A Christian would ask you to believe in the Bible, to believe that the Bible contains divine irrefutable commands from God. A Muslim would ask you to believe in the Quran, to believe that the Quran contains glorious messages from God or Allah. A Hindu would ask you to believe in the Bhagavad Gita, to believe that the Gita contains answers to all your problems given by God or Brahman. Thus, a religion becomes merely a matter of blind faith upon texts of the dead people. Hence, no religion can maintain a healthy relationship with another for a long time.
To quote from my book In Search of Divinity
"It is not much use to talk about religion, until one has felt what the founding fathers felt. Why is there so much disturbance, so much fighting and quarreling in the name of God? There has been more bloodshed in the name of God than for any other cause. And it is all because people never attempt to reach the fountain-head. They are content only to comply with the customs of their forefathers, and want others to do the same."
The point is, what the individuals, whom humanity venerates as prophets, experienced was something beyond the laws of their contemporary religious dogma, and as such, all of these individuals were hailed by the religious institutions of their time and society, as heretics. However, their ideas did indeed succeed to influence a bunch of people stuck in obscurity. So these people embraced these individuals as their own personal Gods, and in the mind of those ignorant people, every God must be worshipped with utter obedience. And their way of showing obedience was to concoct laws and rituals to ascertain the divine significance of their personal God in the spiritual patriarchy of religious prophets. Thus, obedience for one divine Teacher, turned into obedience for a God. And in time, it turned into obedience for a set of laws. And quite unexpectedly, one person's battle against religious orthodoxy or fundamentalism, led to the birth of yet another orthodox circle. This happened at various corners of the world in various circumstances.
In Asia, Buddha, a Hindu, stood up against the orthodox Hindu society, and ended up constructing yet another religion called Buddhism. And on the other side of the world, Jesus, a Jew, stood up against the orthodox Jewish society, and ended up being the personal God of yet another religion called Christianity.
You have heard countless times from me, that Religion is not a book, it is not an institution, and it is not even a person. Religion is realization of the self.
The Bible, the Quran, the Vedas and all the scriptures in the world are mere inventions of man (not woman) in the pursuit of understanding the self, and to some extent, in the pursuit of authoritarianism. Scriptures from the past have nothing to do with the neurologically created and experienced sensation of divinity and religion. However, all the books which humanity so gloriously worships as sacred, attempt to codify the divinity that is born with the human body and dies with it. This divinity or simply religion is born with the self created by the brain and ceases to exist when the self dies upon the death of the brain.
Religions began as realization of the self, but ended up being retaliation against each other. A handful of individuals in human history, empowered by their own neurons of divinity, experienced something quite extraordinary. They experienced something beyond this mortal world. They experienced being one with an Omnipotent Entity or Abstract Source of Energy. Despite the fact that, these experiences were all taking place exclusively within their own brain, they manifested as extraterrestrial encounters. Hence, the pre-conceived notion of Supreme Entity somewhere up in the sky, got more deep-rooted into the psyche of the ignorant masses.
When a person lacks understanding of the physical universe, and its phenomena, the primordial nature of the mind is to fill in the gaps with all kinds of gibberish concepts that originally come from our primitive days in the wild. And one of these concepts is that, there is a superhuman entity somewhere out there, who keeps an eye on us. That is the most natural knack of the primitive part of the mind. Because here, by believing so, we are psychologically entrusting an imaginary father figure (or mother figure in some religious beliefs, such as the Hindus) with our security and peace of mind. It does act as a placebo effect, but unlike the placebo pills used in our clinical trials, this placebo effect of a father figure or a personal God, has immense biological impact upon all aspects of human life, through the neurobiological substrates of the mind.
In simple terms, when a person believes that a God is truly concerned about the well-being of life on earth, and especially of human life, the belief adorns that person with various positive psychological elements such as emotional stability, in times of distress and a highly functional moral compass. Here this belief has nothing to do with reality whatsoever, rather it serves the evolutionary purpose of self-preservation.
However, if history has shown anything, it is that where there is a God, there is an institution trying to lock up that God in its lifeless structure of orthodoxy, in order to have authority over people and sell tickets to the Kingdom of that God. Thus emerged all the pompous lies about the extraterrestrial Kingdom of God or Heaven.
"By infusing Jesus the man with the divine magic – by making him capable of earthly miracles as well as his own resurrection, the early church turned him into a god within the human world. Thus, the church reinforced the monopoly on the so-called route to heaven, i.e. salvation only through Jesus Christ. And during those days, whoever kept the keys to heaven would rule the world. " - Neurons of Jesus
This way, religion became politics. It became everything but realization of the self. It became a matter of doctrines, books, hierarchy and superiority of institutions. Hence, today the majority of the human population, perceives religion to be synonymous with certain books. And that is why there are so many conflicts in the name of religion and God in this so-called modern world.
A Christian would ask you to believe in the Bible, to believe that the Bible contains divine irrefutable commands from God. A Muslim would ask you to believe in the Quran, to believe that the Quran contains glorious messages from God or Allah. A Hindu would ask you to believe in the Bhagavad Gita, to believe that the Gita contains answers to all your problems given by God or Brahman. Thus, a religion becomes merely a matter of blind faith upon texts of the dead people. Hence, no religion can maintain a healthy relationship with another for a long time.
To quote from my book In Search of Divinity
"It is not much use to talk about religion, until one has felt what the founding fathers felt. Why is there so much disturbance, so much fighting and quarreling in the name of God? There has been more bloodshed in the name of God than for any other cause. And it is all because people never attempt to reach the fountain-head. They are content only to comply with the customs of their forefathers, and want others to do the same."
The point is, what the individuals, whom humanity venerates as prophets, experienced was something beyond the laws of their contemporary religious dogma, and as such, all of these individuals were hailed by the religious institutions of their time and society, as heretics. However, their ideas did indeed succeed to influence a bunch of people stuck in obscurity. So these people embraced these individuals as their own personal Gods, and in the mind of those ignorant people, every God must be worshipped with utter obedience. And their way of showing obedience was to concoct laws and rituals to ascertain the divine significance of their personal God in the spiritual patriarchy of religious prophets. Thus, obedience for one divine Teacher, turned into obedience for a God. And in time, it turned into obedience for a set of laws. And quite unexpectedly, one person's battle against religious orthodoxy or fundamentalism, led to the birth of yet another orthodox circle. This happened at various corners of the world in various circumstances.
In Asia, Buddha, a Hindu, stood up against the orthodox Hindu society, and ended up constructing yet another religion called Buddhism. And on the other side of the world, Jesus, a Jew, stood up against the orthodox Jewish society, and ended up being the personal God of yet another religion called Christianity.
Some Thoughts on Neuroscience & Science
It is the consensus of the general population that Neuroscience is the study of the nervous system. However, in reality, it is far more beautiful than just that. Saying Neuroscience is the field of studying the nervous system, is like saying the Hulk is a man who opens a tin can with his bare hands.
Neuroscience is the science that reveals every single element of the existential nature of human mind, or simply mind, in a broader aspect. And one who understands the mind becomes a better version of himself or herself. Neuroscience - the science of mind, reveals to us, who we are - what we are - why we are. It gives answers to questions that have haunted humanity since the days in the wildness. We neuroscientists discover the truths that take the human self closer to absolution.
To quote from my book "Love, God & Neurons: Memoir of a scientist who found himself by getting lost"
"We gain from the new science of mind not only insights into ourselves - how we perceive, learn, remember, feel, believe and act - but also a new perspective of ourselves and our fellow human beings in the context of biological evolution.”
The most intriguingly unique feature of Neuroscience, is that here the mind attempts to study itself. Hence, Neural Science is the endeavor of the mind to understand itself.
However, like all other fields of scientific endeavor, it cannot work alone. To fully manifest its true potential, Neuroscience often joins hands with other sciences, especially other biological sciences such as evolutionary biology, molecular biology, genetics etc. Through this beautiful collaboration, we get a more complete and solid understanding of the mind. That is why for a scientist in any field, it is imperative to know by heart, that he or she cannot proceed a single step in the path of scientific research with the arrogant idea in the head that his or her own field is the greatest of all sciences.
To become a scientist, you must learn to be humble in front of other fields of science while defending the dignity of your own. A Physicist's insight of the universe would be much grander than a biologist, and at the same time, a biologist's insight of life would much grander than a physicist. No scientist in one field is greater than another scientist in another field. Each field of science offers us a unique and deeper perspective on a certain phenomenon of life and universe. Each field of science completes the other.
However, the harsh reality of today's society is that the Physicists get most of the attention from the general population. And behind this attention, or rather attraction, lies a deeper evolutionary reason. Modern Physics has a certain air of mystery and sophistication around it, which stimulates people's primeval affinity towards ignorance-driven mysticism. Which means, the less people understand a certain phenomenon, the more they are attracted to it. And that is why almost everybody on planet earth knows about Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, but very few people in the non-scholar population have heard of Leonhard Euler, Joseph Breuer and Gottfried Leibneiz.
Science is the human endeavor to elevate the self and the society from the darkness of ignorance into the light of wisdom. Sophistication is not science people, simplicity is. Science does not complicate things, rather it eases the predominant complications of the society. Science demystifies the mysticism that holds on to the psyche of the human society like a virus. Science is the most effective, efficient and magnificent path that leads towards the salvation of humankind.
Further Reading
Neurosutra: The Abhijit Naskar Collection
What is Mind?
Love, God & Neurons: Memoir of a scientist who found himself by getting lost
Neuroscience is the science that reveals every single element of the existential nature of human mind, or simply mind, in a broader aspect. And one who understands the mind becomes a better version of himself or herself. Neuroscience - the science of mind, reveals to us, who we are - what we are - why we are. It gives answers to questions that have haunted humanity since the days in the wildness. We neuroscientists discover the truths that take the human self closer to absolution.
To quote from my book "Love, God & Neurons: Memoir of a scientist who found himself by getting lost"
"We gain from the new science of mind not only insights into ourselves - how we perceive, learn, remember, feel, believe and act - but also a new perspective of ourselves and our fellow human beings in the context of biological evolution.”
The most intriguingly unique feature of Neuroscience, is that here the mind attempts to study itself. Hence, Neural Science is the endeavor of the mind to understand itself.
However, like all other fields of scientific endeavor, it cannot work alone. To fully manifest its true potential, Neuroscience often joins hands with other sciences, especially other biological sciences such as evolutionary biology, molecular biology, genetics etc. Through this beautiful collaboration, we get a more complete and solid understanding of the mind. That is why for a scientist in any field, it is imperative to know by heart, that he or she cannot proceed a single step in the path of scientific research with the arrogant idea in the head that his or her own field is the greatest of all sciences.
To become a scientist, you must learn to be humble in front of other fields of science while defending the dignity of your own. A Physicist's insight of the universe would be much grander than a biologist, and at the same time, a biologist's insight of life would much grander than a physicist. No scientist in one field is greater than another scientist in another field. Each field of science offers us a unique and deeper perspective on a certain phenomenon of life and universe. Each field of science completes the other.
However, the harsh reality of today's society is that the Physicists get most of the attention from the general population. And behind this attention, or rather attraction, lies a deeper evolutionary reason. Modern Physics has a certain air of mystery and sophistication around it, which stimulates people's primeval affinity towards ignorance-driven mysticism. Which means, the less people understand a certain phenomenon, the more they are attracted to it. And that is why almost everybody on planet earth knows about Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, but very few people in the non-scholar population have heard of Leonhard Euler, Joseph Breuer and Gottfried Leibneiz.
Science is the human endeavor to elevate the self and the society from the darkness of ignorance into the light of wisdom. Sophistication is not science people, simplicity is. Science does not complicate things, rather it eases the predominant complications of the society. Science demystifies the mysticism that holds on to the psyche of the human society like a virus. Science is the most effective, efficient and magnificent path that leads towards the salvation of humankind.
Further Reading
Neurosutra: The Abhijit Naskar Collection
What is Mind?
Love, God & Neurons: Memoir of a scientist who found himself by getting lost
How the understanding of the brain can change our lives
People often ask me – what is my work about? I tell them – I study humans – I study how they think, how they feel, how they behave and why. This answer probably would induce another question in your mind, which is – “how does this apply to my personal life?” So, the real question here is – how does the understanding of the mind, which essentially is the understanding of brain functions in a large scale, can effect and change human life? How can the understanding of the mind be applied by the lay-person – the non-scientist, in his or her life, to live better, with friends, family and co-workers?
These are the questions, which I attempted to address in one of my works, entitled “What is Mind?” I concocted various thought experiments to elucidate answers to such questions among other philosophical ones? So, in this piece, we are going to take a look, at two excerpts from the book, which are most appropriate in this context. First let’s bring up an excerpt to shed some light on how our behavioral capacities and traits can alter radically based on internal and external conditions.
Excerpt 1 from What is Mind?:
Imagine yourself having a fight with your romantic partner. The tension of the situation makes your limbic system run at full throttle and you become flooded with stress hormones like cortisol and adrenalin. The high levels of these chemicals suddenly make you so damn angry, that you burst out in front of your partner saying, “I wish you die, so that I can have some peace in my life”. Given the stress of the situation through highly active limbic system, your PFC loses its freedom to take the right decision and you burst out with foul language in front of your partner, that may ruin your relationship. In simple terms due to your mental instability, you lost your free will to make the right decision.
But when the conversation is over, and you relax for a while, your stress hormone levels come down to normal, and you regain your usual cheerful state of mind. Immediately, your PFC starts analyzing the explosive conversation you had with your partner. Healthy activity of the entire frontal lobes, especially the PFC suddenly overwhelms you with a feeling of guilt. Your brain makes you realize, that you have done something devilish. As a result, now you find yourself making the willful decision of apologizing to your partner and making up to him or her, no matter how much effort it takes, because your PFC comes up the solution that it is the healthiest thing to do for your personal life.
From this you can see, that what you call free will is something that is not consistent. It changes based on your mental health. Mental instability or illness, truly cripples your free will. And the healthier your frontal lobes are, the better you can take good decisions. And the most effective way to keep your frontal lobes healthy is to practice some kind of meditation.
So, you see, what you feel when you are angry or sad, or desperate, may not actually be the baseline emotional state of your individual mind. Taking that into consideration, you can take necessary precautions to prevent your angry outburst from ruining a certain relationship with another person. Now let’s look at one of the most significant thought experiments from What is Mind?, which actually depicts the real life benefit of the understanding of brain functioning. I named this thought experiment The PMDD Conundrum.
Excerpt 2, A Thought Experiment from What is Mind?
The PMDD Conundrum (Thought Experiment, What is Mind?, 2016)
Mental health influences your decision-making ability regardless of your experiences. However, experience is what makes you better at making the right decision in a given situation. Here the term right only refers to your subjective perspective of the choice. To explain how experience alters one’s free will,let’s carry out a little thought experiment in the context of two different scenarios.
CONTEXT 1
Imagine yourself to be layman with no notable awareness of biology. You start dating a woman planning a long-term relationship. Every month right before her period starts, she gets extremely cranky like all menstruating women. However, she tells you that she has a rare medical condition called Pre-Menstrual Dysphoric Disorder or PMDD, which is the extreme form of PMS. You have already heard all about women getting agitated during their PMS, so you think that it is just the same. However, in time things get real stressful. Every month during those days, she would turn into a completely different person. And one time, she gets so agitated that she bursts out – you are the worst decision of my life. Naturally, it feels beyond acceptable to you. You are a human after all.
You cannot ignore such behavior any more. You start perceiving every single insulting word from her mouth to be true. It seems that it is what she really feels. You start getting upset beyond tolerance. And after several of such intense insults from her during those days, you realize that you don’t deserve such nonsense. You have no practical idea of what PMDD really is, so you perceive the insulting and violent behavior of your woman to be extremely inappropriate. So, one day you simply go ahead and tell her – you are nothing but a psychopathic maniac who just likes to hurt people. I think it’s time we ended things. Here, due to the lack of deeper understanding of what PMDD really is, your lay brain makes a decision based on your limited perception and needs, that you need to end the relationship.
CONTEXT 2
Now let’s run the same experiment in a different context. Imagine yourself to be a person with a hobby of reading a lot of Science books, especially those connected to the mind. You like to learn new things. Now, you get into the same situation and the same circumstances as mentioned earlier. But, here when your girlfriend tells you about her condition after the first month of outburst in your relationship, you get really curious. Previously due to your curiosity you have already learnt about the basic biology behind PMS and how it affects the female psychology. So, hearing about PMDD, you don’t only feel responsible but also very intrigued to learn about it. You feel the urge to know how can such a cheerful person turn into a completely different human being, almost like a beast?
And as you start reading, everything begins to make sense. The first thing you realize is that, PMDD is nothing like the common PMS that almost every girl faces. It is the extremely violent form of PMS, which is very rare. Due to the intense hormonal storms of PMDD inside a woman’s head, her cognitive reality changes drastically during the pre-menstrual days. You start to realize what your woman has to go through every month, due to her condition. A man can never even imagine in his wildest dreams how such storm feels like.
PMDD leads to the worst of hormonal mood swings. Every month during these days she turns into a completely different person filled with hopelessness and gloom. As soon as the tides change she comes back to her real cheerful self. It is this condition which makes her say the things she would never say in a lucid mental state.
You begin to understand that for most women with PMS the hormonal changes are manageable, and they are able to somehow keep their agitation to themselves. But for your special lady, the story is different and quite unmanageable. Most weeks of the month she is brainy, creative, enthusiastic, cheerful and optimistic, but a mere shift in the hormonal flood on certain days makes her absolutely hopeless about the future, about herself, about your relationship and basically about everything that she can think of. On those days her inner instability forces her to hate herself as well as get irritated at every single action you take. And the most fascinating thing about her mental state during that time is that the hopelessness caused by hormonal imbalances feels so damn real to her that she literally perceives it as the everlasting reality of her life. The utter hormonal turbulence completely transforms her cognitive reality from a cheerful one to a gloomy one. It constructs an altered state of consciousness, in which she becomes a different personality filled with nothing but hatred and rage.
She becomes absolutely blind to all the cheerful moments of her life. And she gets so restless that she explodes with insulting words towards you. Over time, you learn that the best to do in this situation is to do nothing and just be there with her. And every time she gets cranky, you simply learn to remain patient and unaffected by her words. Every month, once the hormonal storm wears off, she comes back to her original sunny state. In time, you grow more attachment for her, and she even becomes fonder of you, because you are always there for her, even when she is mad as hell. Thus, you don’t ever feel to leave her, rather together you stay forever and beyond.
ANALYSIS
In both contexts, you had two available options to choose from – leave or stay. Yet, you made totally opposite decisions in exactly the same circumstances. The only thing that was different is your understanding and experience.
In the first context, you were a layman with a general view of the world. You perceived everything in a generalized manner, with no further need of your own to explore and have deeper understanding of a phenomenon. Hence, when it came to decide whether to leave or to stay in the relationship, your brain made the decision based on your generalized understanding of everything, and you willfully preferred to leave your woman in the pursuit of a better prize, with less crankiness.
In the second context, you had a better grip over natural phenomena. Moreover, you had the curiosity to understand things, in a better way than the general public. And your understanding allowed you to try seeing the world from your woman’s perspective. And the more you tried, the better you became at being next to her when she needed you the most and hated you at the same time. You got experienced at it.
Naturally, the thought of leaving her, never occurred in your mind. And even if it did, you brushed off as the spur of the moment. Because your PFC already had sufficient data on the situation to analyze and come up with a positive outcome. Your experience here served as the very foundation, of your willful support towards your woman.
Each emotional impulse, each thought, each behavioral expression, has a neurological basis. Understanding these bases can redefine how we look at a person, how we look at a certain behavior of that person, how we look at a certain emotional impulse or behavioral expression of ourselves, and then to choose whether or not to accept it as our usual characteristic. And this very looking can change how we see our lives, how we live our lives, and how we see the world which we live in. In this looking lies the true key to contentment. In this looking, lie precious jewels of graceful living.
Recommended Reading
What is Mind?
These are the questions, which I attempted to address in one of my works, entitled “What is Mind?” I concocted various thought experiments to elucidate answers to such questions among other philosophical ones? So, in this piece, we are going to take a look, at two excerpts from the book, which are most appropriate in this context. First let’s bring up an excerpt to shed some light on how our behavioral capacities and traits can alter radically based on internal and external conditions.
Excerpt 1 from What is Mind?:
Imagine yourself having a fight with your romantic partner. The tension of the situation makes your limbic system run at full throttle and you become flooded with stress hormones like cortisol and adrenalin. The high levels of these chemicals suddenly make you so damn angry, that you burst out in front of your partner saying, “I wish you die, so that I can have some peace in my life”. Given the stress of the situation through highly active limbic system, your PFC loses its freedom to take the right decision and you burst out with foul language in front of your partner, that may ruin your relationship. In simple terms due to your mental instability, you lost your free will to make the right decision.
But when the conversation is over, and you relax for a while, your stress hormone levels come down to normal, and you regain your usual cheerful state of mind. Immediately, your PFC starts analyzing the explosive conversation you had with your partner. Healthy activity of the entire frontal lobes, especially the PFC suddenly overwhelms you with a feeling of guilt. Your brain makes you realize, that you have done something devilish. As a result, now you find yourself making the willful decision of apologizing to your partner and making up to him or her, no matter how much effort it takes, because your PFC comes up the solution that it is the healthiest thing to do for your personal life.
From this you can see, that what you call free will is something that is not consistent. It changes based on your mental health. Mental instability or illness, truly cripples your free will. And the healthier your frontal lobes are, the better you can take good decisions. And the most effective way to keep your frontal lobes healthy is to practice some kind of meditation.
So, you see, what you feel when you are angry or sad, or desperate, may not actually be the baseline emotional state of your individual mind. Taking that into consideration, you can take necessary precautions to prevent your angry outburst from ruining a certain relationship with another person. Now let’s look at one of the most significant thought experiments from What is Mind?, which actually depicts the real life benefit of the understanding of brain functioning. I named this thought experiment The PMDD Conundrum.
Excerpt 2, A Thought Experiment from What is Mind?
The PMDD Conundrum (Thought Experiment, What is Mind?, 2016)
Mental health influences your decision-making ability regardless of your experiences. However, experience is what makes you better at making the right decision in a given situation. Here the term right only refers to your subjective perspective of the choice. To explain how experience alters one’s free will,let’s carry out a little thought experiment in the context of two different scenarios.
CONTEXT 1
Imagine yourself to be layman with no notable awareness of biology. You start dating a woman planning a long-term relationship. Every month right before her period starts, she gets extremely cranky like all menstruating women. However, she tells you that she has a rare medical condition called Pre-Menstrual Dysphoric Disorder or PMDD, which is the extreme form of PMS. You have already heard all about women getting agitated during their PMS, so you think that it is just the same. However, in time things get real stressful. Every month during those days, she would turn into a completely different person. And one time, she gets so agitated that she bursts out – you are the worst decision of my life. Naturally, it feels beyond acceptable to you. You are a human after all.
You cannot ignore such behavior any more. You start perceiving every single insulting word from her mouth to be true. It seems that it is what she really feels. You start getting upset beyond tolerance. And after several of such intense insults from her during those days, you realize that you don’t deserve such nonsense. You have no practical idea of what PMDD really is, so you perceive the insulting and violent behavior of your woman to be extremely inappropriate. So, one day you simply go ahead and tell her – you are nothing but a psychopathic maniac who just likes to hurt people. I think it’s time we ended things. Here, due to the lack of deeper understanding of what PMDD really is, your lay brain makes a decision based on your limited perception and needs, that you need to end the relationship.
CONTEXT 2
Now let’s run the same experiment in a different context. Imagine yourself to be a person with a hobby of reading a lot of Science books, especially those connected to the mind. You like to learn new things. Now, you get into the same situation and the same circumstances as mentioned earlier. But, here when your girlfriend tells you about her condition after the first month of outburst in your relationship, you get really curious. Previously due to your curiosity you have already learnt about the basic biology behind PMS and how it affects the female psychology. So, hearing about PMDD, you don’t only feel responsible but also very intrigued to learn about it. You feel the urge to know how can such a cheerful person turn into a completely different human being, almost like a beast?
And as you start reading, everything begins to make sense. The first thing you realize is that, PMDD is nothing like the common PMS that almost every girl faces. It is the extremely violent form of PMS, which is very rare. Due to the intense hormonal storms of PMDD inside a woman’s head, her cognitive reality changes drastically during the pre-menstrual days. You start to realize what your woman has to go through every month, due to her condition. A man can never even imagine in his wildest dreams how such storm feels like.
PMDD leads to the worst of hormonal mood swings. Every month during these days she turns into a completely different person filled with hopelessness and gloom. As soon as the tides change she comes back to her real cheerful self. It is this condition which makes her say the things she would never say in a lucid mental state.
You begin to understand that for most women with PMS the hormonal changes are manageable, and they are able to somehow keep their agitation to themselves. But for your special lady, the story is different and quite unmanageable. Most weeks of the month she is brainy, creative, enthusiastic, cheerful and optimistic, but a mere shift in the hormonal flood on certain days makes her absolutely hopeless about the future, about herself, about your relationship and basically about everything that she can think of. On those days her inner instability forces her to hate herself as well as get irritated at every single action you take. And the most fascinating thing about her mental state during that time is that the hopelessness caused by hormonal imbalances feels so damn real to her that she literally perceives it as the everlasting reality of her life. The utter hormonal turbulence completely transforms her cognitive reality from a cheerful one to a gloomy one. It constructs an altered state of consciousness, in which she becomes a different personality filled with nothing but hatred and rage.
She becomes absolutely blind to all the cheerful moments of her life. And she gets so restless that she explodes with insulting words towards you. Over time, you learn that the best to do in this situation is to do nothing and just be there with her. And every time she gets cranky, you simply learn to remain patient and unaffected by her words. Every month, once the hormonal storm wears off, she comes back to her original sunny state. In time, you grow more attachment for her, and she even becomes fonder of you, because you are always there for her, even when she is mad as hell. Thus, you don’t ever feel to leave her, rather together you stay forever and beyond.
ANALYSIS
In both contexts, you had two available options to choose from – leave or stay. Yet, you made totally opposite decisions in exactly the same circumstances. The only thing that was different is your understanding and experience.
In the first context, you were a layman with a general view of the world. You perceived everything in a generalized manner, with no further need of your own to explore and have deeper understanding of a phenomenon. Hence, when it came to decide whether to leave or to stay in the relationship, your brain made the decision based on your generalized understanding of everything, and you willfully preferred to leave your woman in the pursuit of a better prize, with less crankiness.
In the second context, you had a better grip over natural phenomena. Moreover, you had the curiosity to understand things, in a better way than the general public. And your understanding allowed you to try seeing the world from your woman’s perspective. And the more you tried, the better you became at being next to her when she needed you the most and hated you at the same time. You got experienced at it.
Naturally, the thought of leaving her, never occurred in your mind. And even if it did, you brushed off as the spur of the moment. Because your PFC already had sufficient data on the situation to analyze and come up with a positive outcome. Your experience here served as the very foundation, of your willful support towards your woman.
Each emotional impulse, each thought, each behavioral expression, has a neurological basis. Understanding these bases can redefine how we look at a person, how we look at a certain behavior of that person, how we look at a certain emotional impulse or behavioral expression of ourselves, and then to choose whether or not to accept it as our usual characteristic. And this very looking can change how we see our lives, how we live our lives, and how we see the world which we live in. In this looking lies the true key to contentment. In this looking, lie precious jewels of graceful living.
Recommended Reading
What is Mind?
Brain makes the mind, mind makes the person.
Half knowledge is more dangerous than ignorance. Take the notion that jellyfish don’t have a brain, for example. When we talk about the brain, we’re actually referring to the central nervous system. In case of the jellyfish, the nervous system is not centralized, instead it’s spread across the anatomy. So the actual fact is, jellyfish do have a brain, it just doesn’t look like one. Even trees have a brain, a nervous system that is. To put it simply, consciousness is the supreme fundamental of life, and it is impossible to have consciousness without having some sort of nervous system, for consciousness is the creation of the nervous system.
No Such Thing as Objective Truth | Sin Dios Sí Hay Divinidad
There is no such thing as an objective truth, it’s all subjective. Unless the brain finds a way to observe the universe, independent of the brain, every truth is subjective truth.
To hell with truth, I say! Better lose truth, than lose your humanity. Better lose truth, than lose love. Love first, truth second. Humanity first, intelligence second!
My theology is not rooted in God, but in people. My philosophy is not rooted in knowledge, but in people. My science is not rooted in reason, but in people. Mi iglesia son humanos, mi cielo son humanos, mi fe son humanos.
Divinity and worship are two different things. Worship is an act of self-preservation, divinity is an act of self-annihilation – divinity is annihilation of the self for the uplift of others. Let the people find a shelter in you, and you shall attain an eternal shelter in them. Un corazón amable es un corazón religioso.
Where there is indoctrination, there is control. Where there is control, there is no love. And where there is no love, there is no religion. Scripture is literature, period – nothing more, nothing less. If you cannot speak of religion, without quoting your scripture, you don’t understand religion.
In the fight between love and god, love always wins. And whenever love wins, god wins. Why? Because god is love, god is oneness. And love is but oneness in practice. Love is not something that merely enhances existence – love is existence.
To hell with truth, I say! Better lose truth, than lose your humanity. Better lose truth, than lose love. Love first, truth second. Humanity first, intelligence second!
My theology is not rooted in God, but in people. My philosophy is not rooted in knowledge, but in people. My science is not rooted in reason, but in people. Mi iglesia son humanos, mi cielo son humanos, mi fe son humanos.
Divinity and worship are two different things. Worship is an act of self-preservation, divinity is an act of self-annihilation – divinity is annihilation of the self for the uplift of others. Let the people find a shelter in you, and you shall attain an eternal shelter in them. Un corazón amable es un corazón religioso.
Where there is indoctrination, there is control. Where there is control, there is no love. And where there is no love, there is no religion. Scripture is literature, period – nothing more, nothing less. If you cannot speak of religion, without quoting your scripture, you don’t understand religion.
In the fight between love and god, love always wins. And whenever love wins, god wins. Why? Because god is love, god is oneness. And love is but oneness in practice. Love is not something that merely enhances existence – love is existence.
Evolution & Electronics (The Sonnet) | Corazon Calamidad
I know electronic circuitry like the back of my hand,
Yet it’s the human mind that fascinates me most immensely.
Fascination in electronics lies in new design possibility,
Whereas the mind is the breeding ground of all possibility.
Our engineering is puny compared to that of Mother Nature,
Each day a new mystery unfolds in the vast organic kingdom.
Our puny electronics work based on cold ‘n rigid computation,
Evolution of life in nature is predicated on plastic mutation.
That’s why we must never disregard nature blinded by arrogance,
We may have conquered nature’s mercy but we’re still subordinate.
The moment a lifeform starts to vilify the womb whence it came,
With a single blow creator nature can flatten all our obstinance.
Foster humility and wisdom, before going nuts about technology.
Don’t end up yet another fancy stain upon the honor of humanity.
Yet it’s the human mind that fascinates me most immensely.
Fascination in electronics lies in new design possibility,
Whereas the mind is the breeding ground of all possibility.
Our engineering is puny compared to that of Mother Nature,
Each day a new mystery unfolds in the vast organic kingdom.
Our puny electronics work based on cold ‘n rigid computation,
Evolution of life in nature is predicated on plastic mutation.
That’s why we must never disregard nature blinded by arrogance,
We may have conquered nature’s mercy but we’re still subordinate.
The moment a lifeform starts to vilify the womb whence it came,
With a single blow creator nature can flatten all our obstinance.
Foster humility and wisdom, before going nuts about technology.
Don’t end up yet another fancy stain upon the honor of humanity.
Esperanza Impossible Sonnet 30
There is nothing free about your will,
All of it is conditioned to the hilt.
If you are to foster any original will,
A lot of soil you’ve got to till.
Perception is not observation,
Perception is prediction.
The brain doesn’t care about observing,
It only puts forward a self-serving illusion.
Your will is but puppet to that illusion,
Which means you are but a puppet to evolution.
You do have the brain power to take control,
But it’ll take a lot of inconvenient self-correction.
If you can do that, you shall rise as sapiens.
Or you’ll just end up as compost in nature’s garden.
All of it is conditioned to the hilt.
If you are to foster any original will,
A lot of soil you’ve got to till.
Perception is not observation,
Perception is prediction.
The brain doesn’t care about observing,
It only puts forward a self-serving illusion.
Your will is but puppet to that illusion,
Which means you are but a puppet to evolution.
You do have the brain power to take control,
But it’ll take a lot of inconvenient self-correction.
If you can do that, you shall rise as sapiens.
Or you’ll just end up as compost in nature’s garden.
Only you can remove your anxiety | Vande Vasudhaivam
“I don’t make baseless claims like – I’ll remove all your fears, I’ll remove all your anxieties, I’ll remove all your insecurities. I am a scientist, not an influencer – which means, I am dutybound to adhere to the truth, no matter how inconvenient they are, instead of peddling comforting lies for exposure. And the truth is, if bombarding people with some fancy facts about the mind removed their worries, every household with a DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) would be the happiest place on earth.”
“Only you can remove your anxiety,
Only you can bring you clarity.
What the hell are you doing at the feet of fraudsters!
Go out and discover your own reality.”
“Only you can remove your anxiety,
Only you can bring you clarity.
What the hell are you doing at the feet of fraudsters!
Go out and discover your own reality.”
